Teaching children about the value of a dollar is not as difficult as it may seem, but it does require thought and planning. It is so much easier to begin with young children than it is to wait until the teenage years. By the time your child has reached adolescence, they have
absorbed every bad habit or inconsistency that you, as a parent, have shown in regards to anything you try to teach to them. For a child, when the lack of respect for a dollar, or for an accomplishment, establishes a solid foothold, it becomes very difficult to change that pattern of thought and behavior, affecting the child not only with monetary issues, but concerning growth of character as well.

Much of the success in teaching depends on the parent, or parents, and their ability to be consistent. For example, if a parent is trying to teach responsibility and accountability with monetary factors to a younger child, they might use a system requiring visual aids. For example: Jenny is a seven year old child who is just learning to earn an allowance by helping to take the clean dishes out of the dishwasher as her chore. She is paid by the week for helping on a daily basis, which encourages her understanding of delayed gratification. (She will need to learn to wait for her paycheck in the adult world) She is also told that if she breaks a plate she must pay for it out of her own money, to encourage responsibility for her actions.

If Jenny sees "Mom" break a dish with no accountability, especially more than once, she will begin to question the fairness of it all; and may even take to hiding the broken dish or laying the blame elsewhere to avoid having to pay. Her thinking will be along the lines of "if Mommy doesn't have to, why should I? A parent MUST be consistent in the actions taken when they are the ones responsible for "breaking a dish". The child should "see" the parent take money out of their wallet and place it in the debit jar, just the same as they are asking their child to do.

Hand in hand with teaching responsible debit, is reinforcement of right action. When Jenny has had to replace five dishes (five dollars in the broken dish jar) then it is time to take her with you to pick out the new dishes. It is important that she has visual reinforcement of her taking responsible action (that she sees her money replacing the dishes that she broke) At this point it is usually a good idea to add an extra dish or comparable reward for her own consistent responsibility. She sees

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Ways to teach kids about growing money?
We want to hear your view. Write now!